LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital has announced the upcoming closure of its Geropsychiatry unit.
The department provides mental health services to seniors, but McLaren said the unit will be closed on April 11th due to ongoing challenges.
According to an internal memo obtained by News 10, the unit's nursing staff were notified on March 24th of the closure and its collective layoffs.
The memo came from the hospital's chief nursing officer and said the closure was the result of “the very realistic changes that healthcare providers are undergoing and the need for McLaren to maintain strong economic stability.”
The announcement came as a disappointment for Dr. Jed Magen, chairman of the Michigan State University School of Psychiatry.
“Well, of course, whenever you lose your mental health resources, that's a shame,” he told News10. “There are sometimes financial reality.”
MSU Health Care has overseen and staffed McLaren's Geriatric Psychiatry Unit since 2021, not directly by Magen, but by his colleagues.
“So it's a 15-bed geriatric psychiatry unit, and the geriatric psychiatry unit usually recognizes people with dementia, depression and other types of behavioral disorders in their later years,” he said.
The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that suicide rates are the highest among people over the age of 85.
Magen said the unit's closure is just another indication that mental health funds have plummeted while the need for services continues to increase.
“If you have diabetes, or you have cancer, if mental health funding hasn't been a priority in the past, it's much more immediate. It's not a priority for an insurance company either,” he said.
In a written statement, a spokesman for McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital told News10 that it was difficult to make decisions close to the Geropsique unit, and that the closure was due to many factors such as a decline in patient volume, a lack of specialist providers and an uncertain healthcare reimbursement landscape.
The statement continues as follows:
“Hospital leadership is to carefully assess ways to better meet the needs of our patients, with the goal of reestablishing services that are more tailored to the evolving needs of the people we serve. We understand that we deeply regret the impact this has on our dedicated team members.
Above all, our priority is the happiness of our patients. The unit serves approximately 8 patients at any time. We are committed to completing current patient care and ensuring that people in need of geriatric psychiatric care have access to the resources of our community.
As we navigate this transition, we appreciate the understanding and support of our community and are dedicated to providing caring, high quality care to all. ”
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